


Face The Music

by Adken



Category: Book of Life (2014)
Genre: F/M, I only did minimal research, M/M, Multi, Pulled all of this outta my ass in about half an hour after watching the movie last night, enjoy motherfuckers, unedited
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-30
Updated: 2018-11-30
Packaged: 2019-09-02 20:21:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16794049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Adken/pseuds/Adken
Summary: Joaquin faces the difficulties of watching the loves of his life marry each other, the fears of being left behind, and the idea that he has spent his entire life so far as a hero due solely to his possession of the Medal of Everlasting Life, and now without it he is nothing and has no one.Ashamed, confused, heartbroken, and scared, he runs away from San Angel hoping to figure something out.





	Face The Music

The wedding of Manolo Sanchez and Maria Posada was beautiful, and inevitable. Joaquin knew since they were children that there was just something special between the pair. Something incredible, and inspiring. He could always see it.

When they were children it made him jealous, and even a bit bitter. Joaquin Mondragon had a family. A mother and a sister who still lived, but who he scarcely ever saw. They were not close, not like family should be, and he never really knew why, but they didn't celebrate holidays together. They rarely attended events together- even meals were often taken in isolation in the Mondragon home. It wouldn't be entirely inaccurate to say that Manolo and Maria were more like family to him than anyone else in his life.

A great majority of Joaquin's childhood was spent alone. To see his best friend in the entire world develop a crush on the girl they played with, a neighbor that they had both grown up around... To watch them smile at each other, to see the feelings develop on both ends, and to know that eventually he would lose them both, it made him angry.

At first, that was all it was. Jealous anger. He doesn't know exactly when his feelings for Maria became so real. He doesn't know just how long he's actually been in love with her... He doesn't know how long he's been in love with Manolo either. Since the beginning? Since Manolo would sneak out to eat with him when his family was too busy to do so, even when he'd already eaten with his own family. Maybe when Manolo's mother died and Joaquin couldn't for the life of him figure out how to help. Maybe he fell for Maria when she was the one to draw Manolo out of his isolated grief, when she coaxed him to cry openly with them at either side. Maybe he fell for them both when Manolo struggled so much with his music after his mother's death that he threatened to quit. When Maria carved her name into his guitar, and they watched him come to life again.

It was certainly around that time that he realized he would have to fight Manolo for Maria's love, as much as he had already lost. Later, once Maria was gone away to study abroad and it was only him and Manolo, he realized that his feelings were so much more complicated than that.

He loved Maria. That was true, and it remains so, but... He loved Manolo too. He wanted them both, all to himself, always. He had been so confused. Nothing was the way it was supposed to be. He was supposed to want Maria, and only Maria, wasn't he? His rivalry with Manolo was supposed to be rooted in jealousy and their mutual love for the same girl, and nothing else... and in a way it was, but for Joaquin it was also rooted in fear. The fear of being left behind, out in the cold, alone with neither of the loves of his life at his side.

He never wanted to hurt either of them, but through his jealousy, his fears, and his anger at the impossibility of having both of them, he ended up hurting them both. He hurt them so badly... and it was time to let them go. It was time to let them be happy together and to deal with the consequences that their marriage would bring him.

The marriage of Manolo Sanchez and Maria Posada was beautiful, inevitable, and utterly heartbreaking for Joaquin, though he couldn't put into words why, and he will never let it be known.

The day after the wedding, with the bandits no longer an issue and the medal that made him worth having around gone anyways, Joaquin wrote a simple letter to his best friends and the loves of his life before he left to find something to do with himself, and to deal with his own heartbreak, a million times worse than anyone could suspect.

'To Manolo and Maria Sanchez  
I am writing this letter to you as my goodbye and as my final well wishes for your marriage and your long happy lives in general. I pray that you remain in love, healthy, and happy for uncountable years to come. Such a thing would mean the world to me, I assure you, even if my next actions might make it not seem as such.

I must leave San Angel. There is something which is of great importance to me that I must do, and I do not think I can do it here. I hope that you will both understand that I do not leave lightly or happily, though I hope to someday return as such. I cannot explain to you what it is that needs doing, and I cannot tell you where it is that I will go, partly because I myself do not yet know. I beg that this does not interfere with your happiness together, however. I wish you both all of the happiness and love in the world. -Joaquin Mondragon'


End file.
